The other day I got my twitter account hacked. It was quite wonderful and sent my friends a message about how they could make $300.00 a day if they clicked on a link (which I also kindly supplied). Believe it or not, I actually have real employment, and I wouldn’t get involved in pyramid schemes if I didn’t. Everything at LearningZen has been going quite well, so I’m really not marinating the option of getting into shady online businesses.

It’s been a busy week, music has helped. I was never one of those people who needed complete silence and solitude to do work, I actually get more done with something happening in the background. I’d like to thank the beats of Chromeo, Matt & Kim, and The Walkmen (along with countless others) for picking me up and also simultaneously calming me down at the same time. This week has been pretty devoid of anything monumental, personally, but hopefully I can make it up by having an action-packed, fun filled weekend.

Next weekend (actually part of the week as well) I will be home in the glorious, glorious land of Connecticut. And by glorious I mean we cut down trees to build things like strip malls and mansions, and then name streets after them; it’s really cute! My road is off of Wood pond, which is off Rockledge, which is off Riverside. And yes, those things used to exist there until they blew them up. The joys of modern suburbia…I am headed to my homeland for to go to my first “friend” wedding. Isn’t it wierd that most of our parents were married with kids at 24, and I can’t even imagine getting married at all or in the remote future?

In any event it should be a good time, and I am actually looking forward to traveling back east for a little R & R and some quality time with friends I haven’t seen in awhile.

It’s that time of year; and I’m not talking about the fall. Level 1, Matchstick Productions, Warren Miller-everyone’s debuting their movies and all I can do is attend every showing, buy raffle tickets that never win me anything, and wait in anticipation.

At the tender age of 12, my parents finally gave in and bought me a snowboard. I learned how to board at a small hill called Ski Sundown. I thought I was pretty cool when I could finally “shred” with the best of them on the mountains only black diamond trail. Thinking back, the grade of steepness at that hill was probably akin to that of my driveway.

When I made the move to Utah two years ago, I was rearing to go. Board? Check. Bindings? Check. Boots? Check. Snow? Holy Shit…Check. My first winter out here was referred to by some locals Ias the best they had seen in twenty years. Needless to say what I began as a new “trial location” soon became my permanent home.

Last New Years I woke up slightly hung over. Okay, Drunk. I decided to roll out of bed reeking of booze and go goof off on the mountain. I noted it was pretty late, but when the mountains are so close you can never justify missing an opportunity to go. Somewhere between leaving my oh so savvy downtown apartment that overlooked the beautiful Pioneer Park and heading up the canyon, I had made a strange decision. I decided to rent a pair of skis, head up to Alta, and see what the fuss was all about. As a totally content snowboarder this may sound a little odd, and I don’t really have much of an explanation for you. Deal with it.

“This is weird”. That’s all I could think to myself as I grabbed onto the rope tow and took my place between two children who looked like they were about four years old. I kept skiing that pathetic bunny hill until they shut that rope tow down. I went back the next day and tackled the chairlift for the first time. “I’m just trying something new,” I thought. “I’ll snowboard tomorrow”.

Well you know what?

I never put my snowboard back on. The End.And also, a new beginning. (Cheesy)

Unless you’ve got millionaire friends, a small business often equals a small budget. You have to learn how to do a lot with a little. I’d like to share something I found that I thought was pretty cool. It’s called the Love a Local Business Sweepstakes and is sponsored by Intuit. All you have to do is enter your favorite local business and it will get entered into a drawing for a 1,000 growth grant.

Since I moved to Utah, I’ve worked for three separate places which all happened to be unique local businesses. First I worked at Big City Soup. This was in my “I don’t want a real job phase”. It suited me perfectly for the time; I lived right down the street, the hours were pleasing, and I had all the free soup a girl who desire. Next I worked at Ore, a business owned by a husband and wife team who made sustainable handmade containers and other landscape elements. Now I have been at LearningZen for almost four months. In my particular project that I work on, we have a great mission with very limited resources. You would think everyone would jump on the free education bandwagon but you’ve got to get the word out in order for people to know about you. You can utilize all the networking and internet marketing in the world but what it comes down to is this: getting the word out is expensive. I can’t even believe how much money legitimate advertising costs!

Anyways, here’s the bottom line. Go to the site, and nominate your favorite local business. They need your support!